Workboats

Middle East Workboats 2011, the region’s leading event for workboat operators, builders and equipment suppliers returns to Abu Dhabi at a time when the maritime industry is rapidly accelerating in countries across the Gulf.
Renewed growth across various important maritime and related sectors including harbour and escort tug business, support and servicing along with coastal construction, energy exploration and production and others underscores the importance of this event.
A key opportunity in the sector is created by the ageing fleet of workboats in the region, with an estimated 40-50% of these more than 20 years old, requiring extensive capital investment in the months ahead in modernising and upgrading vessels.
“Driven by a number of factors, the workboat sector is now once again firmly back in expansion mode, as evidenced by the interest this year’s Middle East Workboats has generated already,” said Emma Hamilton, Middle East Marketing Manager at Seatrade, organisers of Middle East Workboats, which runs from 3-5 October 2011 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC).
“From landing craft delivering plant and construction equipment, to ferry and water taxi craft visiting new island developments off the Abu Dhabi coastline, supporting land reclamation and new port development along with greenfields energy exploration in the Gulf, Red Sea, and Oman, existing vessels are in rising demand,” added Hamilton.

IHC Beaver Dredgers, known for standard cutter suction vessels, continues to deliver workboats to complement its dredgers.
For example, the company has supplied another Delta Multi Craft (DMC) 1050 to support an IHC Beaver® 1200 for its operations in Nigeria. The workboat was supplied from stock to ensure a minimum lead time and it has now formed the perfect working partnership with the dredger.
The versatile DMC 1050 will assist the dredger in its daily operations

“While the economic downturn has taken its toll on the global shipping industry, the Middle East market for workboats of all kinds continues to show vigorous growth,” said Christopher Hayman, Chairman of Seatrade, organiser of the Middle East Workboats exhibition and conference from 5-7 October 2009 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.
Workboats include tugs, ferries, supply vessels; police, fire, patrol, pilot, rescue and oil spill boats; along with, dredgers

Multi-billion dollar projects in the Middle East oil and gas industry are driving developments in the design and operation of the workhorses of the sea, according to industry experts. A growing demand for workboats of all sizes is also being stimulated by the mega-dollar port and reclamation schemes taking place around the Arabian Peninsula.
All will come under the spotlight at a dedicated industry event - Middle East Workboats 2008 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (28-30

Alicat Workboats, of Great Yarmouth, delivers its latest catamaran workboat 'Dalby Trent' to Dalby Offshore.
Continuing the long history of shipbuilding in Great Yarmouth, Alicat Workboats based on Southtown Road and part of the Gardline group, formally hands over its latest aluminium built wind farm support vessel to Dalby Offshore.
The Dalby Trent is the third Alicat to be delivered to Dalby Offshore, and Stuart McNiven

Coast Guard crews rescue nine people after a workboat struck and became lodged on a wellhead near Venice, La., seven miles north of Main Pass.
Four HH-65C rescue helicopter crews from Air Station New Orleans medevaced six people from the workboat who were injured. Four men were flown to Air Station New Orleans where they were met by ambulances and two others were flown directly to West Jefferson Memorial Hospital.

Polarcirkel AS partnered with Nova Sea AS, Norway, to design and build a Cabin Workboat for transporting personnel out to fish farming feed barges, even in the harshest weather conditions.
Designated the Polarcirkel 860 Cabin Workboat, MS Nova Polar is built to the standard 28 ft 3 inch Polarcirkel limit, with the 10 ft beam providing a great working deck and a huge cabin with lots of head room and all round visibility.

Jeppesen Marine has launched Jeppesen Workboat Navigator – A Professional Information Service. It is designed as a piloting solution for commercial boats operating in coastal areas and inland waterways and provides mariners with a combination of detailed vector-based digital marine charts, location-based data, such as Notices to Mariners, and input from onboard sensors, such as GPS, radar, AIS, heading sensors, and onboard cameras

Yanmar America Corporation of Adairsville, Georgia, has introduced a range of propulsion and auxiliary power High-Speed Commercial Workboat diesel engines.
Offered in models from 350 to 1,800 hp (257 to 1340 kW), these powerplants open new commercial business opportunities throughout North and South America. Yanmar already dominates the commercial marine diesel engine sector in Japan and other Asian markets

Norsafe AS reported exceptional bollard pull and low speed thrust using twin UltraJet 305HT waterjets coupled to twin Yanmar 340 bhp 6LYA-STP engines. The survey boat Munin is designed and tested according to the "Nordic boat standard" for workboats. During sea trials a speed of 30 knots with a displacement of 8 tonnes was comfortably achieved and a bollard pull of 2.8 tonne was recorded. According to Norsafe, the workboat has excellent reliability, maneuverability, and sea keeping abilities

At the risk of dredging up (bad) memories, I find myself harkening back to 1985 when, as a young mariner, I lived in Houston, Texas. As the situation in the oil patch worsened, neighborhoods in and around the Bayou City emptied out as oil workers looked for other things to do

Cooperation between both the operational and construction teams of Sanmar AS and the designers at Robert Allan Ltd. has resulted in another new tug/workboat design.
Yenicay, this first-of-class compact ASD achieves a 30mt bollard pull in a vessel measuring 18.7m x 9.2m, with a draft of 3

Essex-based shipbuilder CTruk received a £1 million ($1.5 million) grant for the construction of an Advanced Composite Technology Centre from the UK Government's Regional Growth Fund, the office of Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced today.

A pair of newly-built workboats, 26' mooring boats Chbika and Naila, were built to operate in Tangier, Morocco, but were unable to maneuver as required, having particular difficulty running at slow speeds with their original transmissions and ended up failing sea trials

CWind has secured its third temporary power supply project in German waters.
CWind is providing an integrated solution that includes the project management, rental of generators, the servicing, maintenance and refueling as well as the specialist workboat required at Borkum Riffgrund

Damen has begun work on the latest and one of the largest yet in its shallow draft Shoalbuster range. Ordered by Van Wijngaarden Marine Services, the Shoalbuster 3512 is 35 meters in length, has a draft of 2.9 meters and GRT of 498 metric tons

Carimin Petroleum Berhad one of the leading providers of offshore oil and gas (O&G) support services in Malaysia, has received an umbrella contract for provision of spot charter marine vessel services from Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd (PCSB).

On the last day of what proved to be a busy Workboat show in New Orleans, Mikael Lindner, President, Scania North America, sat with Maritime Reporter & Engineering News to reflect on the current and future direction of the power company’s marine business in North America.

Bosch Rexroth has upgraded the electrohydraulic controller used on the company’s A4VSO and A4VSG hydraulic axial piston components, which function as secondary control units in the Rexroth Active Heave Compensation (AHC) system for offshore winching applications.

Meercat Workboats have delivered its first vessel under the umbrella of new owners Burgess Marine with the hand-over of a 14m. workboat to Scottish fish farming specialists Dawnfresh Farming.
Meercat completed the steel build, named the Falls of Lora, at its facilities in Portchester, Hampshire

Mustang Marine, which is under a new ownership and management structure after being bought out of administration in May 2014 by a group of nine investors, has completed a broad range of orders in what was a successful second half of 2014, the company reports

E-Crane agents and special guests attended the E-Crane Technology Showcase in New Orleans during the first week of December in conjunction with the International WorkBoat Show (IWBS). The three day event consisted of a dinner reception and presentations on the evening on Wednesday, December 3

Maine Maritime Academy Receives a $1.4 Million U.S. DOT Research Grant to Develop a Marine Engine Testing and Emissions Laboratory.
The Marine Engine Testing and Emissions Laboratory (METEL) at Maine Maritime Academy (MMA) is working on several initiatives to implement viable emissions